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 The Big Test - The Intelligence Question 
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The Big Test has been an interesting read so far. When I read the first chapter I was disheartened to learn that post WWII Chauncey wanted to put all Americans in a certain group based on IQ tests. It seems unfair to hold a person's worth soley on the score they make on a test. I know we have discussed tracking and those children who can or cannot achieve state standards due to various reasons but a child can out perform his IQ score. I see it everyday in my class. All students need a chance to follow their dreams. Granted we hope those dreams are based in reality and as teachers we try to guide students into choosing what is reasonable. I do not think that we should say, "You only have an IQ of 75 so you have to take these classes. You are not a student that will go to college so you can't take this class."
Another interesting idea from Chapter 1 was that of inferior races by Francis Galton. It kind of explains the theory by knowing this person is Darwin's cousin (survival of the fittest). Intelligence is the key trait ro have. Light-skinned people were more intelligent than dark-skinned people. Which meant that lighter-skinned people were more important. There was also the fear that unintelligent people were reproducing faster and would create a "dumber" human race. In essence, these unintelligent people should not be allowed to reproduce but the intelligent light skinned people should breed. The only thing I can think of here is Hitler and the perfect human race. Do we all have to be perfect? [/i]

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Jennifer Blankenship


Wed Oct 01, 2008 7:30 pm
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Lots of substantial quotes so far.
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...was to end traditional teaching and curriculum in high school and college and down the road, to create a more liberal-minded, freethinking, tolerant class of leaders, who would build a fairer society
I think the orginal basis of the testing system was not meant to be what No Child Left Behind has made it. However, now that it is here, what can be done? The basis was meant to prevent
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any student who amassed the proper number of credit-hours, just by sitting in class, could obtain a high-school diploma. Colleges would accept any high-school graduate who could pay the tuition and then same process would begin again...
This makes for a good arguement for testing, so I can understand it originating purpose. However, I do not think this is working now. I do not think that testing is an adequate way to assess knowledge and thinking skills. I am trying to be reasonable with this book and keep an open-mind about the history behind the test. I have to say, a large part of me wants to smack this Chauncey guy for starting this massive testing holocaust of student thinking. :roll:


Sun Oct 05, 2008 6:45 pm
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I find it really ironic that the same concerns surrounding testing in the early to mid 1900s are some of the same concerns today. One classic debate, is that certain groups fare worse when it comes to testing. Often these groups are minorities. On page 67, it is stated that "overall statistics on the Army-Navy College Qualification Test showed far-below-average scores for Southerners, Negroes, and the poorly educated." Clearly, this is something that is still discussed today.

The origin of testing the in the United States is very interesting. I had know idea about the history of the SAT, ACT, bubble sheet, etc. While the intent of testing is understandable, it is absurd to me that one test can be used to determine a person's life path. Is the No Child Left Behind act doing the same thing? Are we letting tests determine if a person is successful in life? I think our goal as educators are to make our students successful despite test scores.

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Callie Grubb


Sun Oct 05, 2008 8:54 pm
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The thing that I found the most ironic about this book is the fact that the initial intent of the SAT was to look at the top students and ignore everybody else. Only the top few should be priveleged enough to make into the nation's universities. However, today schools are told that they are going to be judged and funded not based on how our top students perform, but on how the worst students in the school perform on the test.
Schools get punished if they don't ensure that everybody is learning.
Quite a switch isn't it??

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Sandra Peterson


Tue Oct 07, 2008 12:58 pm
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I found a very interesting quote in this book that remined me of Hard Times
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Sometime a person grows to maturity inside a tightly constrained milieu and then, exposed to the outside world for the first time, is struck with unexpected force by something from completely beyond his experience. ... In such cases, the mystery is what it was about the new thing that made it so powerful. It must have linked itself to something that is already deeply set into one's makeup, else how to explain the instant, overwhelming impact-but what?

Louisa had such an experience I feel.
I often wonder can we really change? According to this their are events that can trigger a change within us. So can we expect the our intelligence to change and our IQ to change. I feel that we can change but most people do not allow the change.

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Holly McClure


Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:59 pm
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Very rarely do I remember a particular statement or quote within a text without marking the page somehow, but throughout this entire reading "page 36" wouldn't leave me alone.
[What Wood had in mind was the institution of a great national testing apparatus that would do two things: select the very best students for advanced education; and take away the absolute arbitrary power of teachers by creating a way for students to show they had mastered a subject.]
This was in reference to Wood's passion for achievement tests. Hello! All I see are brilliant shades of NCLB and the ridiculous way the EOGs and EOCs have taken away meaningful teaching and learning opportunities so that someone, somewhere can profit from our darlings suffering through these dreadful tests. Do they really measure mastery of a subject or will those most precious test results reflect what kind of day it is or what a child's mood may be?
I am not a fan of ETS! Money hungry! No sense of reality or humanity! It has been interesting to learn the history of testing, but I find myself biting my lip and grinding my teeth...not a comfortable way to try to enjoy a book! :evil:

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Michael A. Robbins
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Wed Oct 08, 2008 12:28 pm
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What I find most interesting is how our educational system is supposedly evolving, however, we are still using the same methods that we used 75 years ago. Today, we say that each child has an equal opportunity and that each student has the potential to be "somebody". However, society, testing and the results of tests continue to show that there is still a select group that is left who will continue to fall be the wayside. Taking it a step further, testing can be looked at as a contributor to the downfall of our economy. Our students are told that they cannot find a "good" job without going to college. Our kids cannot find a job at all without graduating from high school. Yet, our methods of testing prevent many students from graduating, giving them no other choice but to work a minimum waige job or stay at home and the let taxpayers support them. It does not take these people long to realize that staying at home is the better option. College is not for everyone. School is not for everyone. It is unfortunate that as a society, we punish those "who want to work" by not giving them an opportunity because they failed some mandated test. Heck, we have even had presidents that did not go to college. While we have advanced as nation by allowing more students, including women and minorities to attend college, those who still do not want to go that route have no where to turn and no where to go. They really have nothing better to do than reproduce and continue the trend. I should not have said that. SORRY!

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Dustin H. Farmer


Wed Oct 08, 2008 1:00 pm
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I think you're absolutely right Dustin! That's what I have been saying all along. We all speak of the injustices of this IQ testing and how even the development of the tests themselves were biased, yet we still use it today to classify our students. The fears of Binet were completely justified. We use his test to classify students into what we perceive the groups that will be able to benefit from a regular curriculum and those who we believe can not. Ironically, Binet's fears of the test separating individuals and losing focus on helping the students on the skills they are weak in, have come to fruition. There have been those before us who have questioned the validity of these tests, we question them today and there will be those that question them after our teaching careers are over. Where does this quantitative single number measuring intelligence end? We seem to understand they are horribly flawed, yet continue to use them in our schools every day! I guess we will continue to use them in our schools until someone develops a new means of assessing students without the biases. Who will that be and when is the question!

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Deby R Johnson


Wed Oct 08, 2008 8:38 pm
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